Ghana’s prisons officials use “1920 weapons” – Woyongo

Interior Minister Mark Woyongo has revealed Ghana’s prisons officials use outmoded weapons, noting that the development is a sad one.

Woyongo said he realised this after touring some selected prisons in Ghana when he assumed office.

“I have been cracking this joke with the Director of Prisons that her people do not have the weapons, even the weapons that they have are 1920 weapons and that is very sad,” the Interior Minister told Ultimate FM’s Prince Minkah.

The minister, who visited the Kumasi Central Prisons on Monday after a mutiny, feared that prisons officials who monitor inmates outside the prisons are easy prey to attacks by the inmates.

Woyongo mentioned that his outfit had commenced some reforms to better Ghana’s prisons. The Interior Minister, however, expressed concern about the seeming slack security at the prisons in the country, whereby visitors and even prisons officers smuggle illegal items into detention facilities.

“Telephones are smuggled into the prisons, everything is smuggled in there. We have a problem,” Woyongo said.